OTTAWA

More than 200 new COVID-19 cases in Ottawa on Friday

Michael Woods CTV News Ottawa Senior Digital Lead

Published Friday, April 30, 2021 10:21AM EDT Last Updated Friday, April 30, 2021 6:18PM EDT

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OTTAWA -- Ottawa Public Health reported more than 200 new COVID-19 cases in Ottawa on Friday, a day after the city reported its lowest new case count in weeks.

The health unit is reporting 206 new coronavirus cases in Ottawa on Friday. On Thursday, Ottawa Public Health recorded 118 new cases, the lowest such number since April 1.

The city's daily case counts continue to oscillate above and below 200 as the health care system battles a punishing third wave of the virus, and with Ontario's stay-at-home order now more than three weeks old.

However, the overall trends are going in the right direction. The city's weekly incidence rate is 128 cases per 100,000 people, OPH reported on Friday. This time last week, it was 170 per 100,000.

And Ottawa's testing positivity rate has dropped to 7.6 per cent. This time last week it was 10.9 per cent.

Vaccinations are also ramping up: 37 per cent of people 16 and older in Ottawa have received at least one vaccined dose as of Friday.

"The rates of COVID-19 in the community, while still high, are stabilizing. I say this as encouragement, not to imply that we are ready to ease restrictions; we are not there yet,” medical officer of health Dr. Vera Etches said in a special statement on Friday. “But we are on the right track.”

Provincial officials had earlier reported 196 new cases for Ottawa on Friday. The provincial and Ottawa Public Health numbers often differ because of different data collection times.

Provincewide, Ontario is reporting 3,887 new cases on Friday, along with 21 more deaths.

There are 883 people in intensive care units across the province. Twenty-nine of them are Ottawa residents.

One new death was reported in Ottawa on Friday, bringing the total death toll from COVID-19 in the city to 504.

On Wednesday, Ottawa surpassed 500 deaths from the virus.

OTTAWA'S KEY COVID-19 STATISTICS

Ottawa entered Ontario's COVID-19 stay-at-home order at 12:01 a.m. April 8.

Ottawa Public Health data:

COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (April 22-28): 127.7 (down from 131)
Positivity rate in Ottawa: 7.6 per cent (April 23 – 29) (down from 9.9)
Reproduction number (seven day average): 0.92

Reproduction values greater than 1 indicate the virus is spreading and each case infects more than one contact. If it is less than 1, it means spread is slowing.

VACCINES IN OTTAWA

Ottawa Public Health updates vaccine numbers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. As of Friday:

Ottawa residents with 1 dose: 306,035 (+24,437 from Wednesday)
Ottawa residents with 2 doses: 29,112 (+1,956 from Wednesday)
Total doses received in Ottawa: 328,530

As of Friday, 37 per cent of Ottawa residents 16 and older (322,149 people) had received at least one dose of the vaccine.

VARIANTS OF CONCERN

Ottawa Public Health data*:

Total B.1.1.7 (UK variant) cases: 24
Total B.1.351 (South Africa variant) cases: 10 (+3)
Total P.1 (Brazil variant) cases: 0
Total variants of concern/mutation cases: 4,861
Deaths linked to variants/mutations: 26 (+1)

*OPH notes that that VOC and mutation trends must be treated with caution due to the varying time required to complete VOC testing and/or genomic analysis following the initial positive test for SARS-CoV-2. Test results may be completed in batches and data corrections or updates can result in changes to case counts that may differ from past reports.

COVID-19 Cases in Ottawa
Infogram

COVID-19 TESTING IN OTTAWA

The Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce said Friday that 1,705 swabs were taken at local assessment centres on Thursday and labs performed 3,385 tests. The average turnaround from the time the swab is taken at a testing site to the result is 20 hours.

HOSPITALIZATIONS IN OTTAWA

The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 related illnesses decreased Friday to 118 from 121.

The number of patients in intensive care is now 29, down from 35 on Thursday.

Hospitalizations (and ICU admissions) by age category:

0-9: 2
10-19: 0
20-29: 1 (this person is in the ICU)
30-39: 7 (1 in ICU)
40-49: 8 (2 in ICU)
50-59: 33 (10 in ICU)
60-69: 31 (12 in ICU)
70-79: 27 (2 in ICU)
80-89: 6 (1 in ICU)
90+: 3

These data are based on figures from Ottawa Public Health's COVID-19 dashboard, which refer to residents of Ottawa and do not include patient transfers from other regions.

ACTIVE CASES OF COVID-19 IN OTTAWA

The number of active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa fell again on Friday and is now below 2,100.

There are 2,088 active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa on Friday, down from 2,149 active cases on Thursday.

A total of 21,596 people have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19. OPH says 266 more people have recovered from the virus over the past 24 hours.